Vol. IX 



March, 1922 



INDIANA UNIVERSITY 
STUDIES 




Study No. 52 

PHILO JUDAEUS, ON THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE. 

Translation, Notes, and an Essay on Philo's Religious 

Ideas. By Frank William Tilden, Professor 

of Greek in,Jndiana University 



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TNDIA^"A University Studies! 

Vol. IX ( March, 1922 



Study No. 52 

PHILO JUDAEUS, ON THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE. 

Translation, Notes, and an Essay on Philo's Religious 

Ideas. By Frank William Tilden, Professor 

of Greek in Indiana University 



(^ 



% 



2 ^ 



'o 



Philo Judaeus, on the Contemplative Life 



By Frank William Tilden 
Professor of Greek in Indiana University 



I 

(M. 471) Now that I have discoursed concerning the Essenes, 
who zealously followed and diligently cultivated the practical life^ 
in all its aspects, or, to use an expression that will be less objection- 
able, in most of its aspects, I shall proceed, after the projected plan 
of my work in the regular order, to speak of what seems appropriate 
concerning those also who have embraced the contemplative life. I 
shall introduce nothing of my own views just to make a better case, 
as is customary with the poets and chroniclers thru a scarcity of 
good examples, but sincerely adhering to the truth itself in the 
presence of which I know that even the cleverest speaker will 
sometimes give up. Yet one must fight it out along this line, and 
struggle earnestly to succeed. For it is not right that the magnitude 
of these men's virtues should be the cause of silence to those who 
believe that nothing truly fine and noble should be passed over in 
silence. 

But the vocation of these philosophers is revealed at once by the 
very name, for they are called "'Therapeutae" and "Therapeutrides"^ 
(healers, male and female), in accordance with the etymology of the 
words. 



lAltho the Essenes were popular among many, yet possibly there were 
some who would object to any such sweeping statement. The Essenes were 
confined to Syria, as we learn not only from Philo but from Josephus and 
Pliny. Philo varies in his account of their numbers, telling us in his treatise 
Quod Omnis Probus Liber that there were about 4,000 of them, and in his Apology 
for the Jews that they numbered tens of thousands. 

- The word "Therapeutae" is used bothfor "healers" and for "worshippers" . 
It seems that Eusebius thought that since John Mark had visited Alexandria 
and doubtless had a goodly foUoAving there, Philo must be describing the early 
Christians under the guise of the Therapeutae. If so, these would then be the 
first Christian monks. But this is not so. Some authorities think that this 
little essay by Philo and the preceding one about the Essenes alluded to above 
belono-ed to a longer Apology for the Jews, which may have been prepared 
previously but was used by Philo when on the embassy to the Emperor Caligula 
in 40 A.D. It sought to show the Gentiles the attractiveness of at least two 
Jewish cults. 

(3) 



4 Indiana University Studies 

Truly this is either because they make profession of an art of 
medicine better than the one now in vogue in the cities;^ for that, 
to be sure, only cures men's bodies, while this cures souls also that 
are overmastered by grievous and all-but-incurable maladies, with 
which pleasures and passions and griefs and fears, and greed and 
follies and injustice, and the countless multitude of all other lusts 
(M. 472) and vices have visited them. Or, they are so called, because 
they have been educated to this by nature, and by the holy laws to 
worship the Supreme Being who is superior to the good and more 
unmixed than the one, and more ancient than unity in origin. 

And who is there, out of all those who make profession of piety, 
that we can compare with these? Can we compare with them, people 
who worship the elements, earth, water, air, and fire? To these 
elements different persons have given different names, as, for example, 
those who call fire Hephaestus,^ presumably because of its power to 
kindle; or the air Hera because of being raised up and lifted on high; 
or water Poseidon, perhaps because it is potable; or earth Demeter 
because it seems to be the mother of all, both plants and animals. 
But such names are the fabrications of the Sophists (shallow thinkers) 
while the elements are soulless matter and cannot move of them- 
selves, being subjected by the skilled artisans to all sorts of forms 
and qualities. 

But what about those who worship the results of creative skill — 
the sun, moon, or the other stars, planets or fixed stars, or the heaven 
as a whole, or the universe? But even these did not arise of them- 
selves, but by some creator most perfect in wisdom. Or shall we 
compare them with those who worship the demigods? Really that 
would be ridiculous for how can the same being be both immortal 
and mortal?^ For apart from the fact that the very source of the 
generation of these creatures is censurable, they are tainted with 

^We find a similar disparagement of physicians in Mark 5, 25-26: "And 
a certain woman [followed him] which had an issue of blood twelve years, 
and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she 
had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse." The Therapeutae 
excelled ordinary healers because they were physicians not of the body but 
of the soul. 

* Such fanciful etymologies were common even in the Classical period as 
is seen by many examples in Plato's Phaedrus. It is impossible to keep the puns 
in English. Philo regards Hephaestus as derived from anrofiai, Hera from alpu, 
Poseidon from nlvu, ttotov, and Demeter from fif/TVP- The last is the only cor- 
rect one. 

* Plato in the Symposium 202 E. says that every spiritual being is between 
God and mortals, but God himself has no direct dealings with men. In Jewish 
and Christian literature, angels are mediators between man and God. 



Tilden: Philo Judaeus 5 

youthful indiscretion which men dare impiously to attribute to the 
blessed and divine powers, declaring that they were madly in love 
with mortal women and had intercourse with them, when in reality 
they are free from all lusts and are thrice-blessed beings.'' 

But shall we compare them with people who worship rude idols 
and images? The substances of these are stone and wood which a 
short time before were utterly shapeless until the stone-cutters 
and wood-carvers cut them out of their natural materials, while 
their cognate and related portions are made into water-pails and 
foot-tubs, and into other vessels of even more ignoble uses which 
serve for purposes that are dark rather than for those that will 
bear the light. 

It is right not even to call to mind the practices of the Egyptians, 
who have wrongly introduced into divine honors unreasoning beasts, 
not only domesticated animals, but even the fiercest of wild beasts, 
from every species under the moon; from land animals, the lion; 
from those that live in the water, the native crocodile; from creatures 
of the air, the kite and the Egyptian ibis. And altho they recognize 
that these animals are born and have need of food, and that they 
are in fact insatiate of food, and full of excretions, and are venomous 
and man-eating, and susceptible to all kinds of diseases, and that 
they are often killed not only by a natural death, but also by violence, 
still these civilized people worship these wild and untamable beasts, 
these rational beings revere irrational brutes, and tho they have 
(M. 473) kinship with the divine they worship creatures not to be 
compared even to Thersites-like apes; and altho they are rulers and 
lords of creation they worship those who are by nature their subjects 
and slaves.'^ 

II 

But inasmuch as these infect with the poison of folly not only 
those of their own race but also those who associate with them, let 
them remain uncured, being incapacitated in sight, that most 



6 In Leg. ad Gaium 2, 557-8, Philo reproaches Caligula for not imitating 
the virtues of Dionysus, Heracles, and the Dioscuri whose titles he assumed 
(Conybeare). 

7 Plutarch in his essay on Isis (379 E) speaks of this animal worship, 
but he tries to defend the Egyptians by supposing that the various animals 
represent in symbolic fashion various attributes of the divine nature. Philo 
regards the worship of animals as more degraded than that of idols. He is 
followed by Justin Martyr and the Christian Apologists generally, but Clement 
of Alexandria rather defends the Egyptians as against the ancient Greeks 
{Cohort, ad Gentes, 325). (Condensed from Conybeare.) 

2—21026 



6 Indiana University Studies 

necessary of all the senses. And I do not mean physical sight but 
that of the soul by which the true and the false are recognized. 

But let the Therapeutic sect, being taught beforehand to look 
steadily at things, aim at the vision of the deity, and soar beyond 
the visible sun and never abandon this post which leads to perfect 
happiness. But those who devote themselves to this service neither 
from force of habit nor from the encouragement or appeal of others, 
but because they are overmastered by a heavenly love, are carried 
away just like the Bacchantes and Corybantes until they see what 
they long to see.^ And then, because of their longing for the immortal 
and blessed life, considering that they have already finished their 
mortal existence, they leave their property to their sons and daugh- 
ters, or even to their other relatives, cheerfully making them their 
heirs before the regular time. For it necessarily follows that those 
who have received from a free hand the wealth that sees should 
surrender the wealth that is blind to those who are still blinded in 
their minds. 

The Greeks chant the praises of Anaxagoras and Democritus, 
because, smitten with a desire for philosophic study, they left their 
estates to be sheep-runs. I, myself, also admire these men who showed 
themselves thus superior to money. But how much better are those who 
did not permit their possessions to be devoured by animals, but have 
supplied the necessities of men, their relatives and friends, making 
them rich instead of poor? For the former was a heedless act, not to 
call it a ''crazy" one, committed by men whom Greece delights to 
honor. But the latter was an act of sobriety, and one planned with 
extreme thoughtfulness. For what worse acts can enemies do than 
to ravage the crops and cut down the trees in the territory of their 
foes, in order that being hard-pressed by the lack of the necessities 
of life they may be forced to submit? And yet that is what Dem- 
ocritus and his ilk did to men of their own blood, bringing a fictitious 
(or artificial) want and poverty upon them, not thru malice afore- 
thought, it may be, but thru lack of prudence and careful considera- 
tion of what was advantageous to others. How much better and more 
admirable are those who subject to no weaker impulse toward 
philosophy, but, preferring big-hearted generosity to carelessness, 
give away their property to please others, instead of destroying it, 

^Compare Matthew 5, 8: "Blessed are the pure m heart for they shall 
see God." Contemplation followed by ecstasy will carry one above all created 
things to the Creator hhnself . Plato says that "The highest object of knowledge, 
the Good or God, is only to be arrived at with difficulty, and only to be beheld 
at specially favorable moments." Republic vi, 506 E; vii, 517 B; Timaeus, 28 C; 
Phaedrus 248 A (Zeller, p. 223). 



TiLDEN: Philo Judaeus 7 

in order to help both themselves and others, and so have made others 
(M. 474) happy by thek generous liberality and themselves by their 
philosophy. For anxiety about wealth and possessions uses up those 
who feel it, and it is a fine thing to husband one's time, since according 
to the physician Hippocrates ''Life is short but art is long."^ Homer 
also, it seems to me, darkly intimates the same in the Iliad at the 
opening of the thirteenth rhapsody,^" in these verses: ''And the 
Mysians, fierce fighters hand to hand, and the proud Hippemolgoi 
that drink mare's milk, and the Abioi, the most righteous of men" 
(Lang, Leaf, and Myer's version), — just as if anxiety and money- 
getting produce injustice because of inequality, while the opposite 
motive produces justice thru equality. In accordance with this 
equality the wealth that nature gives is well defined and surpasses 
that which exists in vain and empty fancies. 

So when these people have given up their property, ^^ not waiting 
to be caught by the bait of any other attraction, they flee without 
ever turning to look back, abandoning brothers, children, wives, 
parents, all the numerous hosts of kindred, fond associations, native 
lands in which they were born and reared, since association has a 
great drawing-power (like a windlass), and is most able to entice 
men.^^ And they change their residence not merely to another city, 
like those who beg their owners to sell them, unfortunate or worthless 
slaves that they are, who thus obtain for themselves a change of 
masters but not freedom from slavery; for every city, even the best 
governed, is filled full of indescribable uproar and ruin and confusion, 

*> These are the exact words of Hippocrates, but they were used by the 
great physician with reference to his own field of medicine. Later they became 
proverbial in a general sense. 

1° Rarely does Philo mention the exact place where a quotation is found. 
Some critics argue against the genuineness of this work of Philo from this 
passage, forgetting that the division of Homer into books was made by Zenodo- 
tus or Aristarchus, 250 years before Philo. 

11 In the first and second centuries A.D. it was a common thing to give 
away one's property when entering upon the religious life. Early Christians 
gave their property to bishops of the church or to the heads of orders. Some- 
times the property was put into a common fund, as we know from Mark 10, 29 
and Acts 4, 32-35. 

12 In his essay on the Decalogue (2, 181), Philo says it behooves the new 
convert to go away from his old surroundings entirely since friends and relatives 
would try to drag him back into paganism. Remmciation of home and friends 
was the keynote of early Christianity, and was strengthened by the firm belief 
that the second advent of Christ and the end of the world were near. Compare 
Jesus' own words in Matthew 19, 29: "And everyone that hath forsaken houses, 
or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands 
for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit ever- 
lasting life." 



8 Indiana University Studies 

which no one would put up with if once he were influenced by 
(M. 475) wisdom. But they make settlements for themselves outside 
the walls, in gardens '^^ or in solitary places, seeking solitude not because 
of any harsh misanthropy which they have cultivated, but because 
they know that association with people totally dissimilar to them- 
selves in character will be unprofitable and injurious to them.^^ 

Ill 

Now this sect is to be found in many parts of the civilized world,^^ 
/or it is right that both Greece and the land of the barbarians should 
share in the perfect good. But it is numerous in Egypt thruout each 
of the districts called Nomas, and particularly around Alexandria. 
And the best of people from every place, as if going to the native 
country of the Therapeutae, emigrate to a certain spot that is most 
convenient, which is situated above Lake Marea, upon a low-lying 
hill, being very well adapted to the purpose because of its safe' 
position and its mild climate.^^ For the homesteads and villages 

'3 Compare John 18, 12 for a garden beyond the brook Kedron where Jesus 
went to be alone, and where certain traditions said that he was buried. 

In Philo's Life of Abraham the evils of city life are pictured in a most 
vivid way, for he says: "Wickedness is everywhere and is therefore known 
to many; but goodness is rare, so that it is not noticed even by a few. 
Aimlessly doth the bad man hurry to the market-place and theaters and 
law-courts, to council-chambers and assemblies, to every kind of concourse 
and club. For he has given up his life to meddlesomeness, wagging his tongue 
in immoderate and endless and indiscriminate gossip, confounding and 
mixing up everything, truth with falsehood, and things which may be said 
with those which may not, private matters with public, and sacred with 
profane, and serious with ridiculous; all because he has never been taught that 
which in season is best, namely silence" (Conybeare's translation). 

'^ Solitude and not asceticism is what is sought. Philo in his De Profugis 
ch. 4 (I, 549) holds out a nobler ideal for a young man of wealth than mere 
giving of it all away. He says: "See here, how thou canst act to escape from 
these struggles. Adapt thyself to live with the same things — I mean, not 
with the evil types of character, but with those things that engender them 
with honours, magistracies, silver, gold, possessions, colours (i.e. paintings), 
forms (i.e. statuary), diverse beautiful things. And when thou hast foregathered 
with them, then like a good artist stamp on these material things the 
noblest ideal and produce a perfect result worthy of praise" (Conybeare's 
translation). 

" Similar societies, offshoots, no doubt, of the mother society of 
Alexandria, were found in Cyprus, Corinth, Tarsus, Colossae, Antioch, 
Rome, Smyrna, and in other places of the Mediterranean Basin. 

1* Since the Jewish quarter was in the northeastern part of the city, 
it wo'uld seem that the place of retreat would lie in that direction from 
Alexandria. Conybeare gives the probable location as on the low limestone 



Tilden: Philo Judaeus 9 

which are round about on every side afford it safety; and the con- 
stant breezes from the lake which opens into the sea, and from the sea 
itself which is close by, account for the mildness of the climate. 
The breezes from the sea are light, while those from the lake are 
heavy, and the mixture of the two produces a most healthful 
condition. 

The houses of those who have gathered here are very cheap affairs, 
affording protection against the two most necessary things, against 
the heat of the sun and the chill of the air. Nor are the houses close 
together as they are in cities, for close proximity would be troublesome 
to those who seek solitude. Nor yet are they far apart because of the 
fellowship which they covet, and also in order that they may help 
one another should there be an attack of robbers. 

In each house there is a sacred chapel which is called the sanc- 
tuary, and a private room where one may be alone. ^'^ To this they 
retire, and there alone they perform the mysteries of the holy life. 
Into this room they take nothing, no drink nor food, nor anything 
else that is necessary for the needs of the body, but having with them 
the laws and oracles that have come down thru the prophets, along 
with psalms and other books by which knowledge and piety are 
increased and perfected. Hence they ever keep the memory of God 
unceasingly before them, so that even in their dreams nothing ever 
presents itself to their minds other than the beauty of the divine 
virtues and powers. ^^ Consequently many even talk in their dreams 
interpreting the glorious doctrines of their sacred philosophy. 

hills behind Nicopolis. Strabo saNys it was a good-sized place on the seashore 
about 30 stades from Alexandria. Lake Mareotis has been filled with sea- 
water ever since British troops let in the water from Lake Aboukir in 1801. 
Strabo (c. 806) gives an account of the settlement of priea'ts in the town of 
Heliopolis, which suggests the colony of the Therapeutae. Heliopolis was 
the On of the Old Testament and here is the oldest obelisk in the world. 

In the convent at Heliopolis once lived Chaeremon, the traveling com- 
panion in Egypt of Aulius Gallus, and there were shown both the houses of 
the priests and the schools {6iaTpi(iai) of Plato and Eudoxus. 

1^ The word "sanctuary" is aejivdov, which with kolv6v in 476, 23 means 
the public place for the Sabbath-day meeting. In Matthew 6, 6 it refers to 
private closet for prayer in a Jewish house. "The private room where one 
may be alone" is the word fuovaaTyaiov, which later means a building or 
establishment for a single monk or hermit, or for a number of them, hence = 
monastery. 

18 Inspiration by dreams seems to be as old as mankind. In the Iliad 
and Odyssey we read often "Even a dream is from Zeus." By divine powers 
are meant the angels to whom God delegated the task of creating and 
governing the world. In Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (Part II, p. 229, 
Harvard Classics), Christiana, after quoting Job 33, 14-15, says: "We need 



10 Indiana University Studies 

Twice each day they are accustomed to pray, about dawn and 
toward evening. When the sun is rising they entreat God that the 
good day may be for them the true kind of a good day, and that 
their minds may be filled with heavenly light; and at sunset that 
their souls having been completely freed from the burden of sensa- 
tions and sensible things may trace out truth as it exists in its own 
council-chamber and inner sanctuary. But the entire interval between 
morning and evening is devoted to the practice of philosophy; for 
taking up the reading of the Holy Scriptures, they philosophize and 
interpret allegorically their native code of laws, since they regard 
the words of the literal interpretation as symbols of a hidden nature 
revealed only in such figures of speech. They have, besides, writings 
of men of olden time, who having been the founders of the sect 
have left behind them many memorials of the real ideas wrapped 
(M. 476) up in these allegories. ^^ These writings they use as examples, 
as it were, and so try to imitate their manner of persuasion. So they 
do not indulge in speculation only, but they, too, compose lyric 
songs and hymns to God in all varieties of meters and melodies which 
they write out as best they can in more dignified rhythms. 

During six days, therefore, each person living in seclusion in the 
places called "monasteries", studies philosophy, never crossing the 
threshold, and not even looking out of the window. But on the seventh 
day,^" they meet together as if for a common assembly, and sit down 
in order according to their ages with appropriate demeanor, keeping 
their hands inside their garments, their right hand between the chest 

not, when abed, lie awake to talk with God. He can visit us while we sleep, 
and caus,e us then to hear his voice. Our heart ofttimes wakes when we sleep; 
and God can speak to that, either by words, by Proverbs, by Signs, and 
Similitudes, as well as if one was awake." 

1^ Altho the Alexandrians believed in the inspiration of the Scriptures, 
they also adopted the Platonic maxim that "Nothing is to be believed which 
is unworthy of God." Here we have the underlying principle of Allegorism. 
Clement of Alexandria expresses it well in his Homilies II, 40: Trac rfe^Y^f^ ') 
ypa^ev Kara rov ffeov ipevSog kanv. The initiated also refused to explain every- 
thing to others, and here comes in the doctrine of "Reserve" which is but 
the well-known "medicinal lie" of Plato. 

-" The Jewish observance of the Sabbath had spread and in Philo's day 
many others besides Jews had come to recognize its value and to respect its 
observance. Philo says in 2, 137: "Barbarians, Hellenes, Mainlanders, 
Islanders, races of the East and West, Europe, Asia, the entire inhabited world 
from end to end [observe Jewish law] . For who has not prized and honoured 
the Holy Sabbath, by granting respite from toil and a period of ease both to 
himself and to his neighbors, not to the free only but to the slaves, nay even 
to the beasts of burthen" (Conybeare's translation). 



TiLDEN: Philo Judaeus 11 

and chin, and their left hanging by their side.^i Then the oldest and 
the one most experienced in their doctrines comes forward and 
addresses them with a steadfast gaze and steady voice, with good 
logic and sound reason, not making a display of his cleverness in 
speaking like the orators or the sophists of today, but having ex- 
amined closely and interpreting carefully the exact meaning of the 
ideas, which interpretation does not then touch merely the tips of 
their ears but penetrates thru their sense of hearing into their soul 
and there remains permanently. All the others listen in silence, 
showing their assent only by glances of the eye or by nods of the head. 
And this common holy place in which they gather on the seventh 
day is a double inclosure, divided into a place for the men and a place 
for the women. And this is so for the women also customarily make 
up part of the audience, having the same zeal and the same faith. ^^ 
The wall between the rooms is built up three or four cubits in height 
above the floor like a breastwork (or j^artition), and the part from 
the top of this partition to the ceiling is left open, for two reasons, 
first tnat the modesty which is becoming in the female sex may be 
safeguarded; and, second, that their hearing of what is said may be 
easy since they sit within easy hearing distance and nothing can 
intercept the voice of the speaker. 

IV 

After having laid down self-control (or temperance) as a kind of 
foundation for the soul,^^ the speakers build upon this the other 
virtues. Not one of them would partake of food or drink before sunset 
since they think that philosophizing is consistent with the light, 
while the necessities of the body are worthy of darkness; whence 
they assign the one to the daytime, and the other to a brief portion 
only of the night. Some even forget about food for three days,^^ 
but these are the ones in whom a greater longing for knowledge is 
implanted. Some are so delighted and enjoy themselves so thoroly 

21 Conybeare says that he has observed Polish Jews on a Sabbath day 
preserve the same attitude in walking. 

22 The Essenes excluded women from communion and Gvcrair/a, and they 
also in general frowned upon marriage. The Therapeutae freely married and 
gave equal rights to women in religious observances. 

23 In Xenophon, Memorabilia 1, 5, 4 we read: "Is it not the duty of every 
man to regard self-control to be the foundation of every virtue, and to make 
this the first consideration in his mind?" 

2" Philo in his Life of Moses 3, 2, 145 writes of the forty-day fast of Moses. 
The early Christians often fasted during Holy Week. Cf. Matthew 4, 1-11, 
and John 4, 32. 



12 Indiana University Studies 

in being entertained by philosophy which supplies them so richly and 
abundantly with her doctrines that they can abstain from food for 
(M. 477) even twice that length of time, and after six days will 
scarcely taste even of necessary food, being accustomed, as they say 
the cicadas are,^^ to feed on the air, since their singing, I suppose, 
assuages their feeling of hunger. 

They consider the seventh day to be a day most holy and to be 
kept as a festival, and so they have thought it worthy of special 
honor. On that day, after the care of the soul, they also anoint the 
body,^^ giving it complete rest, just as one might to one's cattle, 
from continuous labor. They eat no costly food, but simple bread, 
and, as a seasoning, salt, which the most dainty also further season 
by adding hyssop. Their drink is water from a spring.^^ The mistresses 
which nature has set over the human race, like hunger and thirst, 
they appease, offering, however, nothing to them by way of flattery, 
but only those useful things without which one cannot live. Therefore 
they eat simply that they may not be hungry, ^^ and drink so as not 
to be thirsty, shunning satiety like an enemy and a conspirator 
against both soul and body. 

Since there are two sorts of covering, clothing and dwelling, and 
since we have already spoken of their dwellings, telling how they 
are unadorned and home-made affairs, built only with a view to use, 
so we shall speak now of their clothing. It is likewise most in- 
expensive, serving as a protection against cold and heat, — in winter 
a thick cloak in place of a shaggy hide,^^ and in summer a sleeveless 

-^ On the cicadas see Plato's Phaedrus 259 C: "And now they live again 
in the cicadas, and this is the return which the Muses make to them, — they 
hunger no more, neither thirst any more, but are always singing from the 
moment that they are born until they die." Read also the delightful Anac- 
reontic, To the Cicada (H. 32), or the same translated by Thomas Moore, 
p. 27, No. xxxiv. 

2*The Essenes did not anoint themselves; the Stoics used ointments with 
moderation. The Jews were careful to avoid oils made by the Greeks. 

" The region about Alexandria abounded in springs. 

28 Diogenes Laertius says of Socrates (2, 34) : eAej'e, rnvg jutv a27iovc avdpunovq 
L,yv^ Iv' tadioiev avrbv rff eadleLv, Iva C,uu]. 

-'Conybeare sums up the meaning of the passage thus: The Therapeutae 
scrupled to wear fur or skin as being a dead and hence unclean refuse of animals. 
Hence like the Essenes, the modern Hindoos, and the ancient Isiaci, they 
wore linen only. The modern Hindoo loses caste if he wears leather shoes. 
The new Benares water-works were boycotted by the natives because it was 
rumored that washers of leather were used in the taps. 

Plutarch De Ehriet. 1, 369 insists on linen as the proper material of a 
priest's dress. The Therapeutae and the Pythagoreans were scrupulous about 
the purity of their linen garments. 



TiLDEN: Philo Judaeus 13 

jacket"'''' made of linen. On the whole, they carry out their idea of 
simplicity, regarding the false as the beginning of pride, but truth 
the beginning of simplicity. They regard both truth and falsehood 
as a fountain, for from the false flow the manifold forms of evil, 
and from truth the abundance of good things both human and divine. 

V 

I wish now to tell about their common gatherings, and their more 
cheerful means of relaxations in banquets contrasting them first 
with the symposia of others. For others, after they have filled them- 
selves full of strong drink, as if they had drunk not wine but some 
deranging and maddening beverage, or if there is anything stronger 
yet to drive one out of his senses, they bawl aloud and rave after the 
manner of savage clogs, and attack and bite one another, and nibble 
their noses, ears, fingers, and other parts of their bodies, in order 
to prove the truth, it would seem, of the story of the Cyclops and the 
comrades of Odysseus. For in that story, the poet says that he ate 
gobbets of human flesh. But these do it in a more savage way than 
he, for he was taking vengeance upon those whom he regarded as 
enemies, while these devour companions and friends, and in some 
instances their own relatives, while at their own salt and table, 
perpetrating acts of hostility while at peace, like the acts of men in 
gymnastic contests counterfeiting you might say the proper practice 
like those who debase the legal coinage, becoming miserable wretches 
instead of wrestlers, for wretches is the only name that must be given 
to them.^^ 

For what the Olympian athletes do with scientific skill in the 
(M. 478) stadia when sober, having all the Greeks as spectators and 
in the open light of day in order to gain victories and crowns, these 
wretches with counterfeit purpose do at their banquets by night and 

30 -phe £^o)fJ-k is the ordinary ,t'<Twf hefmiidaxaAoQ of the Greek workman and 
slave. The modern Poongye or Buddhist Friar of Burmah leaves his left 
shoulder bare (Conybeare). 

"Athenaeus Bk. X, chap. 17, p. 420 E describes just such a banquet in 
Alexandria, saying: "But those of the present day who give entertainments, 
especially the inhabitants of the beautiful Alexandria, cry out, and make 
a noise, and curse the cup-bearer, the steward, and cook; and the slaves are 
all crying, being beaten with fists and driven about in every direction. 
And not only do the guests who are invited sup with great discomfort and 
annoyance, but even if there is a sacrifice going on, the God himself would 
veil his face and go away, leaving not only the house, but even the entire 
city, in which such things take place" (C. D. Yonge's translation). In 
heiTiTuv adlioi, "becoming miserable wretches instead of wrestlers", we have 
a common pun. 



14 Indiana University Studies 

in darkness, like the drunken wine-soaked rascals they are, without 
science to the dishonor and insult and serious injury of those who 
are with them. And unless someone should come between them and 
part them like an umpire, they would fight on with greater fury, 
trying at once to murder and kill one another. For they do not 
suffer less than they inflict on others, altho they do not realize what 
is being done to them, those, that is, who dare to drink, not as the 
comic poet says to the injury of their neighbors only, but to their 
own as well. 

Consequently those who came to the banquet a little while before, 
safe and sound and friendly to one another, a little later depart as 
foes and with their bodies mutilated. And some of them have need of 
lawyers and judges, others of doctors and those who can plaster them 
up, and of help from such as these. ^^- 

Others, who seem to be more restrained drinkers, drinking unmixed 
wine as if it were mandragora, bubble over, and supporting them- 
selves on the left elbow and turning their necks to one side, vomit 
it up into basins, and then are overcome by deep sleep, neither 
knowing nor hearing anything further, like persons who have but a 
single sense and that the most slavish of them all — taste. 

And I know of some persons who, when they are slightly drunk, 
before they become completely intoxicated (soaked in wine), try 
to arrange beforehand another banquet for the next day by voluntary 
contributions and subscriptions, regarding a part of their present 
pleasure to be the anticipation of getting drunk at a future time. 
So they live out their miserable lives in this way, passing their days 
homeless and hearthless, enemies of their parents and wives and 
children; enemies also of their native land, and above all their own 
worst enemies. For their besotted^^ and prodigal life is a menace to 
everyone. 

VI 

Perhaps some may approve the style of banquet that is popular 
everywhere at the present time, on account of a preference for the 
Italian sumptuousness and luxury, which both the Greeks and 
Barbarians have carefully imitated, who make their preparations 

^-Aristophanes, Wasps 1252 ff., suggests the same thing: "By no means. 
Drinking is bad. From wine come both breaking of doors and the dealing of 
blows, and the throwing of stones; and then settling the bill, after your 
drunken headache." 

33 vypog is found in Heraclitus in perhaps a similar sense. See Fragment 
(By water p. 73): v-)'p?yi> rf/v fvx>/v ejwv; and (Fairbanks, 74-76): av?; ipvxv oofpuTarri 
Kal apiarj]^ "The dry soul is wisest and best." 



TiLDEN: Philo Judaeus 15 

with a view to display rather than to good cheer. They use couches 
called triclina and circular couches adorned with tortoise-shell 
or ivory and other very expensive materials, most of which are further 
inlaid with precious stones. The couch-covers are of sea-purple with 
gold threads inwoven; others are brocaded with all sorts of flowers 
just to charm the eye. They use a vast number of drinking-cups 
arranged according to each separate variety. There are drinking- 
horns, and phials, and cylixes, and all other styles like the Thericlean 
cups, most artistically fashioned and perfectly made with relief 
work by men best versed in the art.^"* 

And there are slaves to wait upon them, most graceful in form and 
(M. 479) most beautiful to gaze upon, who are present not so much 
for service but rather that by their appearance they may gratify the 
eyes of those who behold them. Of these some, who are still boys, 
pour the wine, while others — the bog boys — pour water — they 
themselves being carefully washed and well-groomed, their faces 
rubbed with cosmetics and their eyes penciled, and the hair of their 
heads carefully plaited and tightly bound up. For they have thick, 
long, hair, either not cut at all, or with their front locks only trimmed 
at the ends so as to make them of equal length, and to make an exact 
figure of a neatly curving line.^^ 

They are clothed in tunics as fine as spider webs, and perfectly 
white, carefully tucked up high thru their belts. In front they fall 
just below the knees, and behind to the calves of the leg. And they 
draw together each side of the garment and fasten them with curly 
bows of ribbon along the line of their joining. And thus they let the 
folds dangle down obliquely, the hollows of the sides being puffed 
and broadened out.^^ Others, young men on whose chins the first 

^* Roman luxury would pass naturally to Alexandria first of all. Strabo 
calls Alexandria the fteyiaToi' l/uiTupiov rfjg oiKovfiiv?/^. It was the distributing 
point for all the products of China, India, and Ethiopia. Tacitus — Annals 3, 
chaps. 52-55, tells of the luxuries of Rome and Alexandria and of the efforts of 
the Emperor Tiberius to put a curb upon them. See also Athenaeus Bk. vi, 
chaps. 107, 108 (274 E). 

3*1 have followed Conybeare closely in this difficult passage. The hair, 
according to the above translation, would form a rounded fringe over the 
forehead. Dio Chrys. Or. II says that the dandies of his day affected this 
style. 

36 Again Conybeare is my guide in this difficult passage. He says: "At an 
ordinary banquet the slaves who waited drew up the lower part of the 
XiTuv through the girdle over which it hung in folds. In the luxurious ban- 
quets the slaves are tTrava^uadfievoi, i.e. girt up very high to give them facility 
in moving about with the dishes. In the simple banquets of the Thera- 
peutae, described later, the jirwv/cr/ioi of the deacons were allowed to flow down 
to their feet, thus avoiding any appearance of a slavish garb." 



16 Indiana University Studies 

beard of youth is beginning to bloom, wait in relays. Shortly before 
they were the playthings of their lovers, and are carefully prepared 
with too exceeding daintiness for any more serious service. These are, 
as it were, just an exhibition of the wealth of the entertainer, as those 
who are experienced know, and they rather, in truth, show their 
vulgar extravagance. 

Besides this there are all the different varieties of pastry and 
dainties and sweetmeats, over which bakers and cooks have labored, 
considering not how to please the taste, which is a necessary thing, 
but also to satisfy the sight by their delicacy. Seven tables^'^ and even 
more are brought in filled with all kinds of products which the land 
and sea and rivers and air produce, all carefully selected and in 
prime condition; things of earth and water and air, of which each 
one excfels both in its preparation and in its garnishing so that no 
form of product may be lacking of all those found in nature. Finally, 
dishes are brought in loaded with nuts and apples, not to mention 
those things which are kept for the revels, and such as we call dessert. 

Then some of the tables are carried out empty because of the 
insatiate appetites of those present, who, gorging themselves like 
sea-gulls, gobble up everything even to gnawing the very bones, 
while other courses they leave half eaten after spoiling them by 
picking them over. And then, when they are utterly tired out, with 
bellies filled even to their throats, tho their lust for food is still 
unsatisfied, weary of eating any more, they crane their necks this 

"Suetonius, Augustus 74, gives three or at most six tables, or course?, 
for the different courses were served from small tables brought in and placed 
before the couches. Athenaeus Bk. XII. ch. 69 (574) has the following inter- 
esting passage. He says that Lycon the Peripatetic "used to entertain his 
friends at banquets with excessive arrogance and extravagance. For besides 
the music which was provided at his entertainments, and the silver plate and 
coverlets which were exhibited, all the rest of the preparation and the superb 
character of the dishes was such, and the multitude of tables and cooks was 
so great, that many people were actually alarmed, and, tho they wished 
to be admitted into his school, shrunk back, fearing to enter, as into a badly 
governed state, which was always burdening her citizens with liturgies and 
other expensive offices " (C. D. Yonge's translation). In contrast to this, 
Athenaeus then goes on to tell of monthly banquets in honor of the Muses 
instituted by Plato and Speusippus in the Academy; "not in order that people 
might dwell upon the pleasures of the table from daybreak, or for the sake of 
getting drunk, but in order that men might appear to honor the Deity and to 
associate with one another in a natural manner, and chiefly with a view to 
natural relaxation and conversation" (C. D. Yonge's translation). After a meal 
of this kind with Plato, it is reported that a certain general, Timotheus 
remarked, "With such company one need fear no headaches tomorrow." 
(See Zeller Plato and the Older Academy, p. 28, n. 59.) 



TiLDEN: Philo Judaeus 17 

way and that and fairly lick up things with their eyes and nostrils, — 
with their eyes taking in the richness and the quantity of eatables, 
and with their nostrils drinking in the sweet savor that steams up 
from them. Then when they are completely surfeited with both the 
sight and the smell, they begin to urge others to eat, praising extrava- 
gantly the preparations for the feast and the host for spending so 
lavishly. 

But why should I prolong the story of such doings as these which 
are condemned now by many people of the more moderate sort? 
Such luxuries cause the passions to break out, while the lessening of 
(M. 480) lusts is the thing to be desired. For one may weh pray for 
thirst and hunger, things usually most deprecated, rather than for 
the excessive waste of food and drink in banquets such as these. 



VII 

Of the banquets in Greece, the most famous and the most notable 
are those two at which Socrates was present. One of these was at the 
house of Callias, and was held to celebrate the winning of the crown 
of victory by Autolycus. The other was at the home of Agathon. 
These were banquets which men like Xenophon and Plato, philoso- 
phers in character and language, thought worthy of commemoration. 
For they described them as events worth remembering, which they 
surmised future generations might make use of as models of the 
proper management of banquets. But yet even these will appear 
laughable when compared with the banquets of our Therapeutae 
who have embraced the contemplative life. Each of the banquets 
just mentioned has its own kind of attractions, but Xenophon's 
banquet is more human, for flute-girls and dancers and conjurors 
and professional jokers, who pride themselves on their ability to be 
funny and to amuse people, are introduced. And there are present 
also certain other features which induce hilarity. 

But the Platonic Sijmposium is almost entirely concerned with love, 
not merely of men madly in love with women, nor of women with men, 
for these passions pay tribute to the laws of nature, but of men for 
males who differ only in respect to age. For if anything in this dialog 
seems to be presented in a dainty manner concerning love and 
heavenly Aphrodite, it has been dragged in bodily for the sake of 
cleverness. But the greater part of the dialog is entirely taken up 
with common and vulgar love^^ ^hich robs one of manhood— that 

38Athenaeus also condemns Plato's Sy7nposium for introducing the same 
subject, for we read in Bk. XI, ch. 118 (508): "And as to the disquisitions 



18 Indiana University Studies 

virtue most useful for life whether in war or in peace, and that which 
engenders in the sons of men the female disease and makes them 
into men-women, whereas they should be closely welded together in 
all the pursuits that make for manliness. 

So having outraged the youth of boys and having reduced them to 
the class and condition of "lights of love", it injures the lovers also 
in most essential particulars — body, mind, and estate. For it is 
necessarily true that the mind of the boy-lover must be kept on the 
stretch toward his favorite, looking intently to this alone and blind 
to all other interests, both private and public. It also follows that 
his body must be wasted away by lust, especially if he fail to obtain 
satisfaction. And his estate must be lessened in two ways, both from 
his neglect and from what he squanders upon the object of his love. 

And a still greater evil is engendered that affects all the people, 
causing depopulation of cities and scarcity of the better sort of man, 
and barrenness and unfruitfulness, since they imitate those who are 
(M. 481) inexperienced in the cultivation of the soil, who sow seed 
not upon deep-soiled land of the plain but rather upon salty inarshes, 
or upon stony and hard-trodden places, which are not fitted by nature 
to grow anything, and only destroy the seed cast upon them.^^ 

I pass over in silence such fabrications in myths as creatures with 
two bodies, which orignally having grown together by causes that 
made them unite, later become disunited like parts of creatures 
that once had come together merely, when the attractive force is 
dissolved that once made them unite. All these things are very 
seductive, being able by their very strangeness of conception to 
catch the attention, but which the followers of Moses by reason of 
their great superiority may well despise, having learned from early 
youth to love the truth, and so living on incapable of being 
deceived. 

VIII 

But since the banquets most widely celebrated are filled with such 
nonsense, having in themselves their own condemnation, if anyone 
should be willing to examine them not from the reputation and the 

which Plato enters into about man, we also seek in his arguments for what 
we do not find. But what we do find are banquets, and conversations about 
love, and other very unseemly harangues, which he composed with great 
contempt for those who were to read them, as the greater part of his pupils 
were of a tyraimical and calumnious disposition" (C. D. Yonge's translation). 
'^If Plato offends in the Symposium it was because of catering to some of 
his hearers. We may be sure that his real feeling on the subject is expressed in 
the Laws 8, 838 B. where he condemns all such practices as fxy^SafiuQ haia, deofi- 
iaf/ Si aal alaxjMv alaxiaTa. 



TiLDEN: Philo Judaeus 19 

report that has been spread abroad regarding them as being most 
successful affairs — I shall now set in array against them the banquets 
of those who have devoted their own lives and their very selves to the 
knowledge and contemplation of the realities of nature according 
to the most holy precepts of the prophet Moses. 

In the first place these gather every seven weeks, revering not 
only the simple week of seven days but also its power as well. For 
they know that it is holy and ever- virgin. And this is a preliminary 
to the greatest festival which by lot is assigned to the fiftieth day, 
because the number fifty is the most holy and natural of numbers, 
because it is composed of the power of the right-angled triangle, 
which is the source of the origin of the whole universe.'"' 

Therefore, when they have met together, clad in white garments 
and beaming with joy, yet with the highest dignity, when the signal 
is given by the one who is to perform the service for the day (for it 
is customary to designate as Ephemereutae those who engage in 
such service), before they recline they take their places in rows in 
well-ordered fashion, and raise both their eyes and their hands to 
heaven — their eyes because they have been taught to see what is 
right to look at, and their hands because they are clean of all unjust 
gains, being polluted by no pretense of things that make for their 
own private advantage — they then pray God that the banquet may 
be well-pleasing in his sight and acceptable. And after the prayers, 
the elders lie down following the order of their election. For they 
regard as elders not those of many years and those who are merely 
old, but, on the other hand, count these still more as infants who 
have been late to attach themselves to this sect. But they call those 
elders who from early youth have grown up and reached their acme 
(M. 482) in the contemplative branch of philosophy, which is indeed 
the most beautiful and the most divine part of it. 

The women also banquet with the men, the most of whom, tho 
old, are still virgins, having kept their purity not from necessity 
like some of the priestesses among the Greeks,^! ^ut rather thru 

"Conybeare thus explains the whole passage: "Let the sides of a right- 
angled triangle be in length respectively 3, 4, and 5; then the square of the 
sides which contain the right angle equal the square on the hypothenuse, 
that is to say, 9 + 16 = 25. Also the sum of the three squares, 9 -H 16 + 25 = 50. 
This sum of the squares Philo calls the cVwaiiiQ rov bpOoyuviov rpiy^vov." 

"This is true of the priestess of the Pythian Apollo, and of certam 
ones in the service of Heracles. Chastity was considered essential in the 
pro-ress toward perfection both among the Therapeutae and the early 
Christians Among some even lawful marriage was condemned. Athenagoras, 
Apology chap. 33, speaks of old men and women, unmarried, livmg m the hope 
of closer communion with God. The custom was doubtless common among 
certain sects of the Jews before the days of Christianity. 



20 Indiana University Studies 

their own choice, because of their zeal and eagerness for learning, 
in which being eager to pass their lives they despise the pleasures of 
the body. They are desirous not of a mortal progeny but of an im- 
mortal, which only the soul that loves God is able to produce of 
itself, since the Father has sown in it rays of light perceptible by the 
mind alone, by which it will be able to contemplate the doctrines 
of wisdom. ^^ 

IX 

They lie on the couches in divided lines, the men by themselves on 
the right, and the women by themselves on the left. If anyone imag- 
ines that they have prepared couches, even if not expensive ones, 
at least rather soft ones suitable for persons who like themselves 
are of noble birth, and refined, and cultivators of philosophy, he is 
mistaken. For the beds are of any material that comes handy, on 
which are laid very cheap floor-mats made of the native papyrus, 
raised a little under the elbows that they may lean upon them. 
For the Laconian rigor of life is relaxed slightly, and always and 
everywhere they practice a contentedness with their food that befits 
a free man, resenting with all their might the enticements of pleasure."*^ 

Nor are they waited upon by slaves, because they regard the 
possession of slaves as entirely contrary to nature. For nature has 
created all men free, but the injustice and greed of some, jealous 

^2 In common with many others of his day, Philo believed that a woman 
might conceive and bring forth 6i.a tov deov and without a mortal husband. 
Among the Egyptians, Isis was said to have conceived thru the ears; among 
the Greeks Danae thru a stream of gold which would mean the sunlight; 
and in early art the Virgin Mary is pictured surrounded with rays of light. 
Regarding the birth of Plato, Conybeare has the following interesting passage: 
"As the master of those- who aspired to a life of pure reason, to which the 
body and the senses should contribute little or nothing, Plato was himself 
believed to have been born of a virgin mother, who conceived him by the god 
Apollo. Such a myth grew up quite naturally about Plato, who is for a super- 
ficial reader the most abstract of thinkers; just as about Aristotle it could 
never have arisen; for he, tho really the greatest of idealists, is yet at first 
sight the most matter-of-fact of thinkers" (Conybeare, Excursus, p. 31, 317). 

" Conybeare makes the whole clear by the following note which is given 
in condensed form: They lie down in two rows, the women on one side of 
the table, the men|on the other, leaning on the left elbow with a cushion under 
the arm to raise them up conveniently. The person lying to the right of 
another was said to recline in his bosom {avaKeiaOai h rw koIttu) . So in John 
13, 23 the meaning is that John as the beloved disciple reclined next to Jesus 

Simple banquets like the above are described in Plato's Republic ii, 
p. 372 B. Plutarch, Lycurgus 16, 50 C tells how Spartan boys had to cut the 
rushes to make their own beds. 



TiLDEN: Philo Judaeus 21 

for the inequality which is the beginning of evil, has yoked (and 
so, subdued), and then attached the power of the weaker to the 
stronger. 

In this holy banquet then, as I said, there is no slave, but free 
men serve the guests, performing the office of servants not from 
compulsion nor executing orders, but of their own free will with 
eagerness, and zeal anticipating orders. Nor is it any and every free 
man who is appointed to these services, but novices selected from 
their order with all care according to merit, acting in the manner 
in which noble and well-born youths should act, and those who aim 
at the height of virtue. These, like genuine sons, wait upon their 
fathers and mothers in friendly rivalry and cheerfulness, regarding 
these as their common parents, and as more closely related 
to them than blood relatives; since to men who have the right ideas 
nothing is more nearly related to them than true righteousness.*^ 

And they come in to serve without girdles and with their tunics 
(M. 483) let down to avoid any resemblance of a slavish garb. 
I know that some will laugh when they hear about this banquet, 
but those who laugh will be those who do what is worthy rather 
of tears and dirges! — wine is not introduced into the banquet 
on these days, but the most translucently clear water, cold for the 
majority, but hot for those of the elders accustomed to live daintily. 
, And the table is free from bloody food (i.e. animal food), but on 
the table is bread for nourishment, and salt for a relish, to which 
hyssop is added sometimes as a seasoning, because of those accus- 
tomed to luxuries. For as good sense induces the priests to offer 
wineless sacrifices, so it leads these to Uve soberly. For wine is the 
drug of folly, and costly dainties excite passion which is the most 
insatiable of wild beasts. 

X 

So much for the preliminaries of the banquet. Now after the ban- 
queters have taken their places on the couches in the order in which I 
have explained, and when those who are to wait upon them have 
taken their stand in order ready for service, their leader when silence 
has become general— but when is it not? one might ask— but now 
more than ever is it true, so that one does not even utter a squeak 

^* Compare Matthew 12, 47: "Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother 
and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered 
and said unto them that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my 
brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, 
Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my 
Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister and mother." 

3—21026 



22 Indiana University Studies 

or draw a loud breath, — their leader then, as I said, discusses some 
passage from the Holy Scriptures, or answers some question raised 
by another, thinking nothing about display, for he is not straining 
after reputation for cleverness in speaking, but only longs to under- 
stand some point most accurately, and when he has seen a thing 
himself not begrudging others if they do not see the thing with equal 
clearness, but have at least a similar desire to learn. And so he 
employs a slower method than usual of teaching, lingering over a 
point now and then and going slowly with frequent recapitulations, 
and thus able to engrave the thoughts deep in their souls. For the 
minds of the listeners being unable to keep pace with the interpre- 
tation of one who speaks rapidly and breathlessly would fall behind 
and fail to grasp what is said. But the listeners fix their attention upon 
the speaker, and, remaining in one and the same attitude, listen to 
him intently, showing their understanding and comprehension by 
nods and looks, and their praise of the speaker by their cheerful 
countenance and by the gentle turning of their faces, while they show 
their perplexity by a very gentle movement of the head, or by the 
finger-tip of their right hand. The youths who stand about the tables 
also give heed to what is said no less than those reclining on the 
couches. 

The interpretation of the Holy Scriptures is by explaining the 
meaning hidden in allegorical forms. For the whole body of the law 
appears to these men to be like a living animal, whose body is the 
literal commands (or precepts), and the unseen meaning lying 
within the words is the soul. And in this thought the rational sou) 
begins especially to contemplate what belongs projDerly to itself, 
beholding as if in a mirror the extraordinary beauties of the ideas 
conveyed in the names. So on the one hand it unfolds and reveals the 
(M. 484) symbols, and, on the other hand, it brings naked to the 
light of day the real meaning to such who are able by a little exercise 
of memory to see what is unseen by means of what is seen.'*^ 

^^Heraclitus, Xenophanes, and Plato objected to immoral stories found 
in Homer and Hesiod. In Fragment 119 (Fairbanks) Heraclitus says: 
"Homer deserved to be cast out of the lists and flogged, and Archilochus 
likewise." Xenophanes (Frag. 7, Fairbanks) reads: "Homer and Hesiod at- 
tributed to the gods all things which are disreputable and worthy of blame 
when done by men; and they told of them many lawless deeds, stealing, 
adultery, and deception of each other." 

Of Plato, Zeller says (p. 511): "He will have the framing of myths and 
the exercise of art in general placed under the guidance of public authorities, 
— and all that is not in accordance with the moral aims of the State ejected. 
He forbids in the Republic all myths which relate dishonorable things 
concerning the gods and heroes. He wholly banishes from the State dramatic 



Tilden: Philo Judaeus 23 

So, after the president seems to have spoken long enough, and 
when the discourse seems to have done justice in a satisfactory way 
to the ideas presented by its relevance and pertinence, while as 
listeners the others seem to have responded adequately by their 
attentiveness then, as if all were well pleased, there is ap- 
plause, but restricted to three ~ rounds only.''^ And then 
someone rises and sings a hymn composed in honor of God, either 
a new one which he himself has written, or some old one of the 
ancient poets. For they have bequeathed to posterity many poems 
and songs in iambic trimeter verse, processional songs, hymns for 
libation and altar, stasima, chorals, all well-measured in strophes 
and antistrophes. 

And after him others rise in their places in proper order, while all 
the rest listen in profound silence as they sing, except when it is 
necessary for everyone to join in the responses and to sing the 
solemn refrains.''^ For then all, both men and women, join in the 
singing. 

But when each person has finished his hymn, the young men bring 
in the table mentioned a little above, on which is the most holy 
food, leavened bread with a seasoning of salt with which hyssop has 
been mixed out of respect for the sacred table which is placed in 
the holy outer sanctuary of the temple. ^^ For on this latter table 
> are placed bread and salt without flavoring. The bread, that is, is un- 
leavened and the salt is unmixed (with hyssop). For it is fitting that 



poetry, and tho he permits in the Epics the imitation of the speeches of other 
persons as well as simple narration, it is only in cases where these speeches 
would serve as a moral exemplar. So that, as he says, nothing would remain 
of the whole Art of Poetry but hymns to the gods and praises of famous men." 

Many of the ancient Greeks avoided the difficulty concerning the wicked 
and immoral myths by the allegorizing method, as did the Jews in inter- 
preting objectionable passages in the Old Testament. 

"This rendering follows Conybeare's restoration of the text from the 
Armenian version. In the early Christian church applause seems to have 
been permitted, but sometimes it may have been restricted as seems to be 
the case here. ^^ 

«For such a refrain compare "for his mercy endureth forever so 

frequent in the Psalms. Perhaps the exclamation "alleluiah" or "amen" 

would come under the word "response". 

«CompareMatthew 12, 3: "Have ye not read what David did . . . how he 

entered into the house of God and did eat the shewbread, which it was not 
lawful for him to eat, neither for them that were with him, but only for the 

Conybeare has this interesting historical note: ^"Since the shewbread 
was offered only in the temple at Jerusalem and not in synagogues at all, 
either before or after the destruction of the temple by Titus, this reference 
to the shewbread must have been penned before the latter event." 



24 Indiana University Studies 

the simplest and the least mixed (or purest) things should be 
allotted to the highest class of the priests as a prize for their service, 
while the rest should aspire to similar things to be sure, but not to 
the same things that their betters may retain their privilege. ^^ 

XI 

But after the dinner they celebrate the sacred all-night festival. 
This night festival is celebrated in the following manner. They all 
stand up in a body, and in the midst of the banquet at first two 
(M. 485) choruses are formed, one of men, the other of women. 
A guide and leader of each chorus is chosen, a man who is 
both most highly esteemed and most suitable for the place. Then 
they sing hymns^° composed in honor of God in many meters and 
melodies, now singing in concert, now moving their hands and 
dancing to the time of antiphonal harmonies, and crying out the name 
of God, now moving in procession, now standing still, like the strophes 
and antistrophes in a chorus. 

Then when each chorus has had its fill singing and dancing 
separately, then as if it were in the Bacchic revels, having drunk 
deep of the pure wine of divine love, they join forces and one chorus 

■''■'This banquet of the Therapeutae which Philo has been describing 
must have been celebrated on the eve of the Day of Pentecost. In the next 
chapter he refers to this greatest day, but he does not say explicitly that 
they met together a second time. The Feast of Pentecost commemorated 
Moses' receiving of the Law on Mt. Sinai, and as it was the season of harvest 
and vintage it was a feast of rejoicing when, as was natural, some may have 
overindulged. So the Therapeutae were careful to avoid all excesses, but as 
Philo says in 481, 30 they were not long-faced or lugubrious but of cheerful 
countenance {(pm6poi). The Therapeutae also observed the Feast of 
Tabernacles. Some have thought Philo was describing the Passover, but the 
Passover was not a kow/) ahvofioQ (common assembly) but was celebrated pri- 
vately at home. Nor was Philo describing the Easter festival, as others have 
thought, following Eusebius, who regarded the Therapeutae as early Chris- 
tians. 

^"Conybeare's note explains the passage thus: "The hymns which the 
Therapeutae sang after their meal, in many measures and strains, included 
the great Hallel -(i-e. Psalms 113-118). This Hallel was sung, so we learn 
from the Talmud, on the first day of Pentecost. The dance of the Therapeutae 
was intended to celebrate the deliverance of Israel out of the land of Egypt. 
So in Deuteronomy 16, 12, in connectionwith Pentecost, we read "And thoushalt 
remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egjqjt; and thou shalt 
observe and do these statutes." In Matthew 26, 30, the Last Supper closed 
with the singing of a hymn. Dancing had to be restricted and even forbidden 
among Christians in the fourth century. The Jews always danced at festivals, 
and during the first night of the Feast of Tabernacles men and women danced 
in the court of the temple (Conybeare). 



TiLDEN: Philo Judaeus 25 

is formed of the two, in imitation of the ancient chorus organized at 
the Red Sea, to celebrate the miracles that were wrought there. 
For, by the decree of God, the sea became a means of safety to the 
one side, but a means of utter destruction to the other. For the sea 
being rent asunder was forced back by violent recoil, and solid 
walls, as it were, were made on either side of them, and the inter- 
vening space was cut and widened into a broad, level, and dry road 
for all, thru which the people marched over to the opposite shore, and 
were brought in safety to the higher ground. Then by the returning 
waters coming back in and pouring in on this side and on that on 
what had been dry ground but a little while before, those of the 
enemy who pursued them were overwhelmed and so perished. 

So when the people saw and experienced this which was an act 
beyond reason and thought and hope, being filled with divine 
inspiration, both men and women alike, forming one single chorus, 
sang hymns of thanksgiving to God, the Savior, Moses the prophet 
leading the men, and Miriam the prophetess leading the women. 

In the very closest imitation, therefore, of this chorus, the company 
of the Therapeutae, both men and women, form a harmonious and 
truly musical symphony, the shrill voices of the women blending 
with the deeper tones of the men in corresponding and antiphonal 
songs. Very beautiful are the ideas and very beautiful the expression 
of them, and the chorus itself is impressive. The end and aim of the 
ideas and of the words and of the chorus is holiness. 

So being intoxicated until dawn with this beautiful kind of 
intoxication, not with heavy heads or sleepy eyes, but feeling even 
more wide-awake than when they came to the banquet, they stand 
up and turn their eyes and their whole body toward the East. And 
when they see the sun rising, they raise their hands toward the 
heaven, and pray for a fair day and truth and keenness of under- 
standing. And after the prayers each one returns to his own separate 
sanctuary with the purpose of dealing again in philosophy and 
cultivating speculation.^^ 

So much, then, have I to say concerning those who are called 
Therapeutae, who have embraced the contemplation of nature, and 
who have lived in it and in the soul alone. Truly are they citizens^^ 



siConybeare remarks that "As the hands of the Therapeutae were KuOapai 
Mjfj./itaTuv their philosophy was the only 'trade' they had." The word for culti- 
vation here is yeoipyr/aovrec, which of course refers primarily to tilling the soil. 
The Stoics and Church Fathers use it in the same figurative sense as here. 

"The early Christians from Paul onwards adopted the Stoic's doctrine. 
Cf. Paul, Philippians 3, 20: VfMv yap -b TTolhnum h o'vpamig hnapxei, for our citi- 
zenship is in heaven." 



26 Indiana University Studies 

of heaven and of the universe, and truly acceptable to the father and 
creator of the world because of their virtue which has won them his 
love, and has gained for them a most fitting reward for their goodness 
— a thing better than all merely good fortune, and leading them in 
anticipation to the very summit of happiness. 



Philo Judaeus and His Religious Ideas 



From the best authorities we learn that Philo, who is commonly 
called Philo Judaeus, was born in Alexandria, Egypt, sometime 
between 20 and 10 B.C., and that he spent most of his life there. 
His father was a farmer of the taxes for the district east of the Nile. 
In the year 40 A.D. Philo headed an embassy that went to Rome to 
petition the Emperor Caligula not to demand divine honors and 
worship from the Jews. This he tells us himself in his De Legatione 
ad Gaium. We do not know the date or place of his death. 

Philo is the most important representative of the Hellenized Jews. 
It will be remembered that the Jews of the Diaspora, scattered as 
they were over the world, adopted in most cases the language of the 
people among whom they settled. These who lived among the Greeks 
especially gave up their native tongue, used the Greek language, and 
became saturated with Greek culture. Still they very largely clung to 
their Jewish faith and practices. This Hellenic Judaism reached its 
highest development in and around Alexandria. According to Philo, 
" the Jews in Egypt numbered fully a million people, and in Alexandria 
two of the five quarters of the city were given over to them. Egypt 
was governed at this time by a governor sent from Rome, but both 
the Greek and the Hebrew citizens had considerable freedom and 
enjoyed certain political rights. Doubtless the shrewd Jews had 
coined money in the lucrative wheat trade, in buying and selling 
papyrus, in banking, and money lending. 

One of the most important events in the history of the Alexandrian 
Jews was, of course, the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into 
Greek in the version called the Septuagint. But long before this, in 
the second century B.C., we have the great philosophical commentary 
on the Pentateuch by Aristobulus, in which the allegorizing method 
of interpretation was employed and an effort was made to make the 
Jewish Scriptures attractive to the Greeks. The Greeks had always 
been familiar with such interpretation of Homer and Hesiod. Both 
of these purposes, to interpret allegorically and to attract the Greeks, 
were present in Philo, who may in fact be called the chief exponent of 
the allegorizing method apphed to the Hebrew scriptures. He had the 
missionary spirit, seeking to win Greeks and other gentiles to the true 
religion of the Jews. He is familiar with Greek philosophy, especially 
Heraclitus, the Stoics, Pythagoreans, and above all with Plato. His 
language is largely influenced by Plato, and his philosophy is 

(27) 



28 Indiana University Studies 

fundamentally Greek, colored of course by Hebraism. One can no 
more understand and appreciate Philo than Plato without being 
somewhat of a mystic and in sympathy with the allegorizing method. 

Philo believed implicitly in the Law as handed down by Moses 
in the Pentateuch, and wherever similar ideas are found in Greek 
philosophy, he with other Jews believed they had been borrowed 
from the Hebrews. They adopted Plato as their own, calling him the 
Moses who spoke Attic Greek (Mwrc^vg drrLxl^ov). Philo is 
always trying to harmonize Moses and Plato. Religion is Philo's 
first concern, and here he combats especially the anthropomorphism 
so common in most Greek writers and in many rabbinical commen- 
tators on the Old Testament. Like Xenophanes in an earlier age, 
Philo insists that God is a spirit and must be worshipped as such. 
Compare John 4, 24, "God is a Spirit; and they that worship him 
must worship him in spirit and in truth." Philo even hesitates to 
give God a name, for he says: "Names are symbols of created things; 
do not look for a name for Him who is uncreated." But Philo stops 
before he pushes his argument to pure negation of all qualities and 
attributes, and thus he remains more human if less logical. 

God, according to his idea, did not create the world himself, but 
delegated his creative energy to certain ministers called Powers, 
which in a way are identical with Angels, or with the Logoi of the 
Stoics, or even with the Platonic Ideas. They are the Thoughts of 
God. These Angels are governed by both the Goodness and the 
Justice of God. The backbone of all of Philo's philosophy is the doctrine 
of the Logos. This was not his invention, for it is found in the Stoics, 
and even as early as Heraclitus. The reason why Philo preferred it to 
the Platonic Idea is because of the frequent use of the expression 
"The Word of God" in the Hebrew Scriptures. Besides, its vagueness 
could be interpreted as "word" merely, or "reason", "plan", "system'", 
"idea", etc. Faust had the same difficulty in finding just the appro- 
priate translation for XoyogA 

'The significance of the Aoyof in the world's thought is admirably 
expressed in the following quotation from W. P. Montague ("The Antinomy 
and Logical Theory", in the Columbia University Studies in the History of 
Ideas, p. 236): "Many who failed to see the concrete flux of Heraclitus have 
seen in one form or another his fluxless Logos. Parmenides saw only its shadow, 
the mere generic character of abstract being and permanence, projected into 
the abyss as a dark and homogeneous sphere. For the gorgeous mind of Plato 
the Logos was reflected above the sky as a rainbow of moral beauties and 
creative mystic powers. To Aquinas and Leibnitz it seemed as the omni- 
present intellect of an eternal God. By the transcendental Germans, it was 
taken for the presupposition of the sensible world, which it was, and then 
mistaken for the grandiose structure of their egos, which it certainly was not. 



TiLDEN: Philo Judaeus 29 

This Logos is related to God, to his Powers, and to Man. Related 
to God, it stands for his Wisdom; related to the Powers, it is the 
Creator and Governor of the Universe; related to man, it is the 
go-between, mediator, high priest, and saviour. One cannot know 
God, but one can approach nearer and nearer to him thru Faith, 
Hope, Discipline, and Service. Here we are reminded of Plato's 
ideal of "a pattern in heaven" {na^ahsiyf-ia h> ovpavo)), and of 
man's duty "to put on the immortal as far as in one lies" (e^' oGov 
evhsx^rai d6avdrL^£iv), and of "assimilation to God" {o^iolcdGig rd 
Seoj). 

God is more and more revealed to us by experience in life thru 
fear of his Justice first, and later thru love of his Goodness. Only 
a few attain to close knowledge of God, and Philo himself claimed 
to have experienced certain moments of ecstasy when he lost himself 
completely, was oblivious of his surroundings, and unconscious of 
what he said or wrote. Here, of course, he was influenced by the 
visions recounted in Scripture. 

As Montefiore says, we may speculate upon the slight effect 
Philo made upon the development of Judaism, but it is evident that 
he did affect Christian theology quite definitely. The influence of 
the Logos is apparent, for example, in John, in James, and in Paul's 
Epistle to the Hebrews. The Logos idea also aided in the conception 
of a division in the Godhead. The Holy Spirit as the third person 
of the Trinity came later, to be sure, but the Father and the Logos 
helped to develop the idea of Duality, not that the Logos in Philo 
is the Messiah or the Christ. 

Philo also helped to inculcate the idea that the Kingdom of God 
is something within us here and now, and not an external earthly 
realm, or a future Heaven. The rewards of a good life are holiness 
and a present vision and apprehension of God; the punishment of 
a bad life is in the realization that one is wicked and shut out from 
God's presence. All this is elevating and opposed to the vulgar idea 
of rewards and punishments in another world. It also combats the 
notion that heaven can be purchased by self-inflicted sufferings here, 
or, in other words, it opposes asceticism as a cult. 

To know God is Philo's supreme aim. Altho he seeks this 
knowledge by the pathway of metaphysics, he knows per- 
fectly well that "only the pure in heart shall see God", and 

The realistic or anti-Darwinian logicians of today perceive it less pictur- 
esquely, and more, perhaps, as Heraclitus himself. To them it is an objective 
and self-subsistent loom of invariant law, on which the ever-changing fabrics 
of evolving nature are perpetually woven." 

Philo certainly imitated Plato's "creative mystic powers". 



30 Indiana University Studies 

that a heaven-sent ecstasy is all that can give one even a 
fleeting vision of God — like Moses on the Mount or before 
the burning bush. Recognizing that finite mind cannot grasp 
the infinite God, he yet proceeds as if the unknowable were 
knowable.^ How he does this is thru the Pentateuch, in which 
he believes is all truth. If all truth is there, then God is there. 
But in the Pentateuch the statements about God are colored by 
finite minds and can only present God as a superman. Philo's task 
is to try and strip off this human disguise as far as possible and to 
arrive at a close approximation of God. 

One of the first elements which he recognizes in God is his omni- 
presence. This is shown in the account of the Garden of Eden first, 
and in many passages later. Closely allied to this ubiquity is God's 
immanence. Admitting that God is above and outside his creation, 
and is superior to time and space so that past and future time are 
all present time with God, yet Philo says that God pervades all 
creation. Drummond says on this point: ''Although God remains 
immovable in his omnipresence, yet his power may be manifested 
with varying intensity in different places, just as he is said to dwell 
in the purified souls as in a house, because his watchful providence is 
most conspicuous there." The simplest way to represent this idea of 
time and space is to say merely "God is." 

Again, God is all-sufficient within himself {avrapxEGrarog tavrcS), 
(I, 582). While men stand in need of things, God needs nothing. 

God is also perfect peace. With Heraclitus, Philo holds that 
everything is in constant flux and flow {ndvra pel), and that 
strife is a natural and necessary condition of progress, but that 
God changes not and is perfect peace. Here we note a similarity 
with Aristotle's thought about God which he arrived at thru an 
ecstasy of contemplation. Aristotle made God simply thought 
reacting upon thought {voyjcuq voriaeidg), which would mean that 
God has little or nothing to do with his creation or creatures. Philo 
does not go so far as this, for he stresses also God's goodness which 
makes him take a personal interest in what he has made. He creates 
constantly, or as Philo expresses it: "God never ceases to create, 

-Philo's arguments remind us on the one hand of Spinoza's pantheistic 
argument for the existence of God, and on the other of Berkeley's dilemma 
in trying to recognize God as creator and conservator of nature, while realizing 
that nature is absolute and mathematical. Philo is at times almost as troubled 
as the good bishop by the seeming impossibility of reconciling these two 
ideas. 



TiLDEN: Philo Judaeus 31 

but as it is the property of fire to burn, and of snow to cause cold, 
so also it is the property of God to create (I, 44) .^ 

This does not contradict the idea of perfect rest and peace, 
because the element of fatigue is absent from all God's effort. 
The motive of creation, then, was goodness, ''Everything is for 
the good of the creature, who is in need of receiving God's bounty" 
(I, 47). 

The difficulty in explaining why an imperfect world was created 
is touched upon thus: "For the manifestation of the better, there 
was necessary the creation and existence of the worse; both alike 
are due to the power of the same goodness, viz. to God" (I, 101). 
Again, he says on this same general theme: "God is not a salesman 
lowering the price of his own possessions, but the bestower of all 
things, pouring forth the everflowing fountain of favors, not desiring 
a recompense; for neither is he in need himself, nor is any created 
thing competent to bestow a gift in return" (I, 161). 

Philo is not so satisfactory in explaining the need of punishments. 
Even if one says that punishment is corrective and hence good, yet 
somewhat of evil is attached to it. Philo tries to avoid the difficulty 
by saying that God has delegated punishment to subordinates. 
Further, God's punishments are tempered by grace; he never puts 
forth all of his power but only seeks to help the one punished. 
So in his revelation of himself God recognizes man's limitations, 
as for example when Moses saw but the back of Jehovah as he passed 

by. 

Philo is also troubled by the crass anthropomorphism of the 
Scriptures. In places God is called a man, in others he is not a man. 
The former, Philo says, is less true, but is used because man is not 
capable of understanding about God in any other way. "We cannot", 
he says, "get out of ourselves, and so we get our conceptions of the 
uncreated God from our own attributes" (I, 419). Philo's stand is 
in keeping with the best Greek thought, as when Xenophanes, for 
instance, says: "If cattle or lions had hands, so as to paint with their 
hands and produce works of art as men do, they would paint their 
gods and give them bodies in form like their own— horses like horses, 
cattle like cattle" (Frag. 6, Fairbanks). 

Why should God take an oath is also explained by Philo. It is not 
because God needs this for himself, but it is that we may believe 
an oath better if God himself is supposed to employ it (I, 181, 182). 

3 The tribe of Klamath Indians call God "the Old One on High" and 

one of their thinkers, when asked who created the world, replied "the Old 

One on High". When asked how he created it he said, "by thinking and 
willing". 



32 Indiana University Studies 

The anger and jealousy of God, so often mentioned in tlie Old 
Testament, are likewise commented upon by Philo, who says that 
there are some people whom nothing else will appeal to. They are 
used for the purpose of "admonishing those who could not otherwise 
be brought to a sober frame of mind" {Go)(ppovi^8(j6aL, I, 656). 

Every man, even the humble and the wicked, is related to the 
Divine, ''for he is an impress or fragment or radiance of that blessed 
nature" (I, 35). God is so generous that he delights to give good 
gifts to all his children, and he would like to encourage all to seek 
after righteousness. Compare with this Matthew 7, 11: "If ye then, 
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much 
more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to 
them that ask him?" And Luke 11, 13: "If ye then, being evil, know 
how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your 
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" 

Even wicked persons occasionally have a sudden vision of the 
good, altho it quickly fades away. Also many ordinary persons 
have an instinctive hatred of vice (^iGOTtoi'yjpov ndOog) which 
makes them suddenly champion the good. This is strikingly illus- 
trated in a modern play Liliom by Franz Molnar. 

Altho anyone may thus have momentary glimpses of good and 
even of the divine nature, those who approach nearest to God 
are the philosophers who give themselves up to contemplation of 
his person and his works. This again is Plato's approximation to God. 
And supposing one fails to see God, his reward comes in the effort as 
in any good pursuit (I, 186). 

To search after God with any prospect of success one must first 
conquer the body and all allurements of the carnal nature, and 
exalt the mind and soul. Philo says "The body is wicked by nature 
and a plotter against the soul" (I, 96). As Jeremiah says (17, 9): 
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; 
who can know it?" 

The same ideas are conspicuous in Epictetus, the Evangelists, and 
Paul. Philo has a lurking regard for asceticism as had Plato. Today 
we express the idea in the words "plain living and high thinking". 

Tho not advocating suicide as did some of the Stoics, Philo urges 
one to escape from the polluted prison-house of the body (I, 437, 264), 
and he condemns unsparingly the luxury and vice of Alexandria. 
St. Paul exclaimed, you remember, "O wretched man that I am! 
who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7, 24). 

With all his speculation and mysticism, Philo is also very practical 
for he makes service to mankind the prerequisite to service to God. 



TiLDEN: Philo Judaeus 33 

Helpfulness to one's brother must come before the realization of 
the mystic's dream of heaven. "Human virtue must walk upon the 
earth, and yet must aim at heaven" are his words (I, 552). He uses 
the Ten Commandments to illustrate his point, for he says the first 
four ''words" relate to God, the last five to man, while the fifth 
bridges the gap between God and man thru the parents. Yet in the 
political sphere he follows Plato's idea of aloofness from any active 
participation in government. 

On the question of sympathy and comfort in sorrow or suffering, 
Philo is less satisfactory than many pagan philosophers like Plutarch, 
Epictetus, and Seneca, and, of course, far behind the Psalmist and 
the Evangelists. In the midst both of blessings and of sorrows man's 
attitude should be one of submission and humility. One must not 
have the arrogant notion of the Greek Sophists that "Man is the 
measure of all things." God is the only true cause, man is but a tool 
in God's hands. Repentance is necessary to this submission and 
humility. "Never to sin is the peculiar quality of God; to repent 
is the quality of a wise man" (I, 569). "Even in the souls of those 
who repent, the scars and impressions of their old wickedness will 
remain" (II, 405). "God, the pitying Saviour, can easily bring back 
the mind from long wandering, and in evil plight thru pleasure 
and lust — hard taskmasters that they are — into the right way, if 
only it has once determined to pursue the good flight without turning 
round" (II, 427). 

Altho God is in a sense present in everyone by virtue of the breath 
of creative power, yet he dwells above all in the souls of the good. 
"A fitting soul alone is a worthy house for God" (I, 175; II, 672). 
In Second Corinthians 6, 16, Paul says: "for ye are the temple of 
the living God." 

One's good nature, assisted by proper training, and with God's 
help, will lead to the desired result. Persons enter into life with 
certain endowments which in a measure determine their destiny. 
But nature is not alone in this task; if it were one would be "predes- 
tined" to a certain fate, and Philo avoids this difficulty, tho in a 
rather unsatisfactory way. Heraclitus, ages before Philo, saw more 
clearly when he said, yiSog dvSp^noj haijiGiV (Fragment 121, 
Fairbanks) "Character is a man's guardian divinity", where ridoc, 
means the sum total of what a man makes of himself. Compare with 
this Philippians 2, 12: "Work out your own salvation with fear and 
trembling." Philo says that man is aided in working out his salvation 
by the Divine T^oyot. In explanation of this he says that help comes 
to one person as a sudden and inspiring thought, to another a fine 



34 Indiana University Studies 

passage from a book, and to another the words of a great teacher. As 
Philo words it: "On sonjie the Divine Logos enjoins commands hke 
a king; others it instructs as a teacher his pupils; others not knowing 
what is best for themselves it helps as a counsellor who makes wise 
suggestions; while to others, again, like a gracious friend, it reveals 
persuasively many mysteries that the uninitiated may never hear" 
(I, 649). Jesus says in Matthew 11, 25: "I thank thee, Father, 
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from 
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." 
"When a soul is self-sufficient", Philo says, "the Logos holds aloof; 
when it confesses its weakness, the Logos comes to meet it" (I, 638). 

While Philo's aim is to approach as near as possible to God, he 
is forced to admit that the only positive fact that we can know about 
God is the fact of his existence. His works show his wisdom and power 
and goodness. The Logos helps us to understand God's attributes, 
tho of course very imperfectly. Only a limited number of select 
spirits ever advance beyond the Logos toward God himself. 
Inspiration follows complete triumph over the carnal desires and 
absolute consecration of mind and soul to God (I, 76, 380). 

Fear and Love are fundamental attributes in Philo's conception 
of God. Then, under the Logos, are the Creative and Ruling functions. 
"By goodness God created the universe, by authority he rules it, 
and the Logos unites the two, for by Reason (or Thought) God is 
both ruler and goodness" (I, 144). It is a great step in one's thinking 
when one realizes that the world one sees has been created and that 
there must have been a creator. This leads to Awe or Fear of the 
creator first, and then to Love. Love and Fear of God are united by 
the Logos, but the philosopher tries to pass beyond ideas of Love and 
Fear, to find and adore God for simply what he is, and not for what 
he has done for man. Worship helps in this. 

As to forms of worship, Philo holds to ancient traditions, but 
points out that forms should not take the place of true religion. 
"If a man practices ablutions", he says, "and purifications but defiles 
his mind while he cleanses his body ; or if, thru his wealth, he founds 
a temple at a large outlay and expense; or if he offers hecatombs and 
sacrifices oxen without number, or adorns the shrines with rich 
ornaments, or gives endless timber and cunningly wrought work, 
more precious than silver or gold, let him none the more be called 
religious. For he has wandered far from the path of religion, mistaking 
ritual for holiness, and attempting to bribe the Incorruptible, and to 
flatter him whom none can flatter. God welcomes genuine service 
and that is the service of a soul that offers the bare and simple 
sacrifice of truth, but from false service, the mere display of material 



TiLDEN: Philo Judaeus 35 

wealth, he turns away" (I, 195). We recall at once the first chapter 
of Isaiah where the Lord asks (in verse 11) "To what purpose is the 
multitude of your sacrifice unto me?" and in verse 13, "Bring no 
more vain oblations", and in verse 14, "Your new moons and your 
appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am 
weary to bear them", and finally Psalms 51, 17: "The sacrifices of 
God are a broken Spirit: a broken and contrite heart, God, thou 
wilt not despise." 

Again, Philo says in this connection: "Let those who seek to show 
honor and gratitude to God cleanse themselves of sin; washing 
away all that defiles life in word and thought and deed", and "The 
only true sacrifice is the piety of a God-loving soul" (I, 273, 274; 
II, 151). 

A curious passage is that in which he tells of the angels' one and 
only criticism of creation, the need of a creature with voice to chant 
God's praise. In answer to this criticism God created man gifted 
with ability to sing. But hymns would, according to Philo, include 
not only those which find vocal utterance, but also the silent grati- 
tude of the heart. 

The following is also noteworthy: "Of the works of creation two 
things are holy — heaven, which immortal and blessed natures 
pervade, and the mind of man, which is a fragment of the Divine" 
(I, 625, 626). This suggests at once Kant's famous words: 

"Zwei Dinge erflillen das Gemiith mit immer neuer und zuneh- 
mender Bewunderung und Ehrfurcht, je ofter und anhaltender 
sich das Nachdenken damit beschaftigt: der bestirnte Himmel 
tiber mir, und das moralische Gesetz in mir" (Immanuel Kant, 
Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, Th. II, Beschluss, Vol. V, p. 167, 
ed. of G. Hartenstein: Leipsig, Voss, 1867). 

After Love and Fear of God, Philo places Faith, as chiefest of the 
virtues. But to him Faith is not the beginning of virtue but its goal. 
Perfect Faith belongs to the perfect man only. Faith is not opposed 
to knowledge of a thing or a person, for the more knowledge one 
has of these the more faith he has in them. Faith in God also implies 
the lack of faith in creation and in oneself. Faith in God, however, 
implies perfect freedom. The well-known Collect, "In whose service 
is perfect freedom", might have been worded by Philo. "Nothing so 
completely liberates the mind", he says, "as to become a servant 
and suppliant of God" (I, 534). No commands are needed to the 
perfect man to do God's will, for "The perfect man is impelled by 
himself to virtuous deeds." Compare Jesus' words in John 4, 34; 
"My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." 
Philo illustrates by the example of Abraham, at the close of his 



36 Indiana University Studies 

Life of that man of faith, saying: '^Such was the life of the founder 
and captain of the nation — a hfe, so some will say, according to 
law, but, as my argument has proved, itself a law and unwritten 
ordinance." So also the good man needs no reward. "Virtue", as 
we say, "is its own reward." "The good man seeks the day for the 
day's sake, light for light's sake, and the good for the sake of the 
good, and for no other thing. For this is the Divine Law, to honor 
virtue for itself" (I, 120). 

The prizes one should aim after are not material but spiritual — • 
faith, joy, and a vision of God (II, 412). 

Hope, Philo regards, as the seed from which Faith grows. Hope 
is the foundation of our life (II, 410). Joy is another of the virtues 
to be cultivated. Of this virtue he takes Isaac as the type since his 
very name signifies "laughter". Laughter is the outward manifes- 
tation of the invisible joy of the soul. Joy, of course, is not pleasure. 

Peace is another of the virtues. "No man can be at peace 
who does not truly serve the only Being that is wholly exempt from 
war and abides forever in eternal peace" (I, 368). As Isaiah says 
(26, 3) : "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on 
thee; because he trusteth in thee." Such peace no man can bestow. 
Rest secure in God and so enjoy peace (II, 129). With this compare 
the words of Jesus in John 14, 27: "Peace I leave with you, my peace 
I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not 
your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." 

Forgiveness, according to Philo, depends upon whether you forgive 
others, for he says: "If you ask pardon for your sins, do you not also 
forgive those who have trespassed against you" (II, 670). This is 
in harmony with Christ's own teachings as found in the Lord's 
Prayer (Matthew 6, 12), and in Matthew 5, 23-24: "Therefore if 
thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy 
brother hath aught against thee; Leave there thy gift before the 
altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then 
come and offer thy gift." 

Philo's definition of true greatness is most interesting and original. 
It is "to be near to God, or near to that to which God is near". 

Finally, Philo would be a good patriot if he were a Jew living today 
in America, say, and above all a good citizen of the world in fellowship 
and understanding with all men. The following passages will prove 
these points. First, he says to the Jews of his day: "One country 
cannot contain all the Jews because of their large numbers, for which 
reason they are spread over most parts of Asia and Europe, both 
on the mainland and on islands. They regard Jerusalem, in which 
lies the Holy Temple of the Most High God, as their mother city; 



Tilden: Philo Judaeus 37 

but the various countries in which their fathers, grandfathers, and 
ancestors have dwelt they regard as their fatherlands, for in them 
they were born and bred" (II, 524). 

And from the broader view of citizenship, he says: ''Let there be 
one bond of affection and one password of friendship, devotion to 
God, making piety the motive of every word and deed" (II, 259), 
and again: "For the most potent love charm and the indissoluble 
bond of good-will that makes for unity, is the worship of the one 
God", and lastly: "Relationship is not measured by birth alone, 
under the leadership of truth, but by similarity of interests and the 
pursuit of the same ends." 

After this examination of Philo 's religious ideas one feels that in 
spite of the strangeness of the doctrines here and there, and the 
curious blend of Hebraism and Platonism, we have in him a true 
philosopher and as earnest a seeker after God as any of those des- 
cribed in Canon Farrar's justly famous book. It is easy for a modern 
to sneer at the knowledge and the speculation of the ancients, 
but are we sure that centuries hence our ideas will not be the subjects 
of the jeers and scoffs of a more advanced world? 

On this point Anna M. Stoddart, in her fascinating Life of 
Paracelsus, p. 105, quotes the words of Anatole France: "Le progres 
des sciences rend inutile les ouvrages qui ont le plus aide a ce progres. 
Comme ces ouvrages ne servent plus, la jeunesse croit de bonne 
foi qu'ils n'ont jamais servi a rien." 

To this she adds this comment: "Anatole France in these signifi- 
cant words has laid bare our intellectual ingratitude, our inability 
to realize the miracles of a past which engendered our miraculous 
present." 

The same is more fully expressed by Joseph B. Mayor, in his 
Sketch of Ancient Philosophy, p. XIV: "It is possible to be provincial 
in regard to time, as well as in regard to space; and there is no more 
mischievous provincialism than that of the man who accepts blindly 
the fashionable belief, or no-behef, of his particular time, without 
caring to inquire what were the ideas of the countless generations 
which preceded, or what are likely to be the ideas of the generations 
which will follow. However firm may be our persuasion of the 
Divinely guided progress of our race, the fact of a general forward 
movement in the stream of history is not inconsistent with all sorts 
of eddies and retardations at particular points; and before we can 
be sure that such points are not to be found in our own age, we must 
have some knowledge of the past development of thought, and have 
taken the trouble to compare our own ways of thinking and acting 
with those that have prevailed in other epochs of humanity." 



Bibliography 



Bigg, Charles. Chidstian Platonists of Alexandria, Oxford, Clarendon 

Press, 1913. 
Bigg, Charles. Article, Philo Judaeus, Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
Conybeare, Fred C. Philo About the Contemplative Life, Oxford, 

Clarendon Press, 1895. 
Conybeare, Fred C. Translation of the Contemplative Life, 

Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. VII, pp. 755 ff. (1894-95). 
Montefiore, Claude Goldsmid, Florilegium Philonis, Jewish Quarterly 

Review, Vol. VII, pp. 481-545 (1894-95). (This is based largely 

upon James Drummond's Philo Judaeus.) 
Yonge, C. D. The Works of Philo Judaeus, Bohn Classical Library, 

London, 1855. 



I have used all of these and wish to acknowledge my indebted- 
ness here. F. W. T. 



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